Let me start by saying this. As a son of legal immigrants, I of course have lived a life far different than that lived by Ms. Andiola. I’m a citizen, I’ve gone to the best schools without fear, I’ve walked the streets without fear, I’ve been able to leave the US and return without fear. In other words, I’ve been able to live without a fear that I would suddenly be uprooted and expelled from the only home I’ve known. I know I have lived a very blessed life.

I wish the same freedom from fear for Ms. Andiola. And in confronting Rep. Steve King, she certainly shows that she’s taking her fate into her own hands. I commend her for that.

But. Ms. Andiola betrays a tic of certain sectors. That last part of her tweet—”Will Obama stand up 2 King too”—is not only gratuitous and discourteous, but lacking in all appreciation of the realities of what Pres. Obama is doing.

To start at the most recent point in time, here is President Obama’s statement on the travesty passed by the House GOP last week, before it secured final passage:

“They’re not even trying to actually solve the problem,” Obama said of the House GOP at a press conference from the White House. “This is a message bill that they couldn’t pull off yesterday, so they made it a little more extreme so maybe they can pass it today. Just so they can check a box before they’re leaving town for a month.”

And what would happen if by some miracle the House GOP’s border bill makes it to his desk?

The White House threatened Wednesday to veto the $659 million border bill crafted by House Republicans, calling it an insufficient bill that places “arbitrary and unrealistic demands” on the nation’s immigration system.

And these are just within the past week. Pres. Obama keeps pushing that the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate by a wide bipartisan margin is the only way forward on the immigration crisis, and that the House GOP’s stroking of its rabidly xenophobic base is a non-starter.

President Obama is preparing to announce new measures that would potentially allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the United States without fear of deportation, a politically explosive decision that could jolt Washington just weeks before the midterm elections, according to people who have been in touch with the White House.

Administration officials have told allies in private meetings that both the current surge of Central American children crossing the border and Congress’s failure this year to pass a broader immigration overhaul have propelled the president toward taking action on his own by summer’s end.

Obama aides have discussed a range of options that could provide legal protections and work permits to a significant portion of the nation’s more than 11 million undocumented residents, said Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates who have met recently with White House officials. Ideas under consideration could include temporary relief for law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are closely related to U.S. citizens or those who have lived in the country a certain number of years — a population that advocates say could reach as high as 5 million.

Words, just words! But, this is actually a big deal. Why?

Some Senate Democrats running for reelection in traditionally conservative states, such as Arkansas and Louisiana, have expressed misgivings about Obama going too far on his immigration order, fearing it will not play well among voters in their states.

So, executive action on immigration—in effect legalizing millions of undocumented migrants by the stroke of a pen—might threaten some Senate seats in the upcoming election. That’s a risk the president is obviously willing to take.

I know this isn’t as sexy as “standing up to King”, perhaps challenging him to a duel. But if one wants to make a big difference in the lives of the undocumented, one would think that siding with the man doing all that he can to bring that to fruition would be a wise political course.

Too often on the Left people have an image of Barack Obama as Rush Limbaugh’s “Barack the Magic Negro”: he’ll come in waving his hands and make everything better! And when they’re brought back to reality that politics is hard, dirty work, and nothing is guaranteed, the yelling commences, in expectation that by harrangues the Overton Window will magically move leftwards. The fact is that his voters were unsatisfied with his progress up to 2010, or were lured by the siren song of the Tea Party, and by not turning out to vote—”We voted in 2008! That’s all we thought we had to do!”—were responsible for the dysfunction in our politics since then.

President Obama never promised an easy path. That people took his words to mean that he would fix everything by fiat is on them, not him. “You are the change” has been his refrain, not “I am the change”. And Ms. Andiola, in many respects, is fighting for that change. But that tweet exemplifies the disrespect and dishonesty exhibited towards the president. It starts with a righteous condemnation of Steve King, bigot extraordinaire, but ends with a barely veiled “holding his feet to the fire” snark against Pres. Obama. The man, as I’ve just detailed, is the only one standing between Steve King and his greatest wish of deporting 11 million undocumented migrants.

Too many people don’t get the point: You don’t defecate on your ally because “he’s not doing enough”; you mobilize action so that he can do more. Will you get out and donate to Democrats? Will you make sure every Democrat you know in a competitive district or state will get out and vote in November? If not, then you are merely taking the easy way of blaming someone else for your lack of effort. And that’s something we can’t afford this year.

Ms. Andiola is correct in assessing that Rep. King is her enemy. I wish she could realize that Pres. Obama is her friend.

My advice to you – never buy a refrigerator with an ice-maker! This fridge is 1 year 4months old and this is the SECOND ice-maker visit. The 1st was under warranty, but this one wasn’t, of course. The one time I choose not to get extended warranty because I’ve never USED them (except on my car), AND because they had adjusted the ice-maker a few months back and all was now supposed to be perfect! What I paid today would have covered the 1 year warranty with lots and lots of change for ice cream and cake! Grrrr!
Anyhoo, life goes on …. until the next time I can’t stop the ice-maker from making ice! 😀

Excellent LL, I had a twitter exchange with someone @JesusMagana, who essentially ended up saying that it was the GOP who last did immigrant reform and that Obama failed by not doing immigrTion reform between 2008-10 when he had majorities in the house and senate. I tried to explain, but he stopped responding ? Sad.

THANK YOU for doing this. I’m so exhausted trying to get people to understand who their allies are and who they should be fighting tooth and nail. It’s ridiculous that people who want to be at the forefront of these battles don’t really take the time to read all the information out there and follow these developments closely.

A little bit more on why last nights primaries came and went without a whisper:
Two TeaBagger hopefuls, rising stars, plummeted to earth and crashed. Bentivoglio and Wolf.

GOP makes a big deal only about elections they win—Christie in 2013 was covered wall-to-wall although most if not all the other contests that night were won by Democrats. Including Terry McCauliffe and his team completely taking over VA statewide seats.

If the remaining primary nights are mostly ignored by the Media I will be taking that as a pretty good sign of LandslideDems 2014.

Well done, VC. Was preparing a similar tweet but will not send it as I don’t want Ms Andiola to perceive she’s being attacked. Yours delivers the message. Let’s hope she reads LL’s fine essay and grows.

“It’s ridiculous that people who want to be at the forefront of these battles don’t really take the time to read all the information out there and follow these developments closely.”

Right after sending the tweet I was tempted to send Miss Andiola another tweet stating that Pres O has been ‘standing up’ on this issue way before she confronted King, but decided to hope she gets that bit of info from Lib_L’s article. Assuming she takes the time to read it. From her TL, she’s probably basking in all the un-nuanced praise that’s rolling in from her 15mins in the spotlight.

LL’s post very elegantly illustrates the point that we have to be very careful about whose propaganda we sign on to. Even though they may appear to be on the same side as we are, their almost compulsive need to attack & undermine our greatest asset – President Obama – sets the progressive agenda back, puts them at odds with us.

As another example, Salon has been circulating an article written by a Rabbi, who is supposedly calling on his fellow Jews to stand up to Israel for the injustices they’ve overseen and the recent rash of atrocities committed against innocents in Gaza. This sounds perfectly reasonable and righteous, and under ordinary circumstances would make me stand right behind the Rabbi and give him my full support. But in reading the article further, I couldn’t help but notice that he had to slip in a jab at PBO – an outright falsehood.

// “In an America that at this very moment has its president calling for sending tens of thousands of children refugees back to the countries they risked their lives to escape, in an America that refused to provide Medicare for All, in an America that serves the interests of its richest 1 percent while largely ignoring the needs of its large working middle class, these ideas may sound naively utopian.” //

And notice how he easily juxtaposes the immigration issue in which he unfairly blames the President with the other things (done by GOP)…this is an example of how these poseurs on the “left” grate on my last nerve with their sneaky, narcissistic and underhanded attacks on our President under the guise of appealing to humanity their cause.

Still in his 70s…73/74yrs old, I think.. Isn’t he married with Children? There is one photo that I saw yesterday with that girl above or another as young as her…… posing down below the belt, right around Jerry Jone’s manhood.

He will get zero backlash. Men, GOP and Money……the press looks the other way. But a Dem? The press will forget everything and drive that story 24/7.

Not just that……Birtherism. Winks and innuendo on his religion. Using Rev Wright to attack then sen Obama.

Yet the Media never bothered to drive the Drug issues, Missing In Action and DUI of GW Bush nor did they make Willard’s Life on his many lies, flip flops, avoiding ‘Nam, different stories on his Pro-Choice, his Tax Evasions, his Region and his role as a Bishop for 13 yrs.

The Media in USA is not only biased, slanted, but the 98% who cover this president are never questioned about their sever case of ODS…..morphed into bigotry and racial animus.

Great post. I too was bothered by the way this Dreamer was speaking about President Obama and Democrats in general. To be honest, I don’t think she did any favors to herself during her confrontation with Rep King.